In Hollywood’s latest frontier, the film industry is racing to embrace Artificial Intelligence, launching what many are calling a new “space race” to produce the first blockbuster predominantly crafted by AI.

Traditionally cautious about technological shifts, the filmmaking world often clings to its roots. Many directors remain loyal to 35mm film over digital formats, while others view CGI and blue screen effects as threats to their artistic integrity.

As a result, AI has been met with significant skepticism among veteran filmmakers. Yet, in the paradoxical and often cutthroat environment of Hollywood, this skepticism runs parallel to a fervent behind-the-scenes effort. Studios, directors, and screenwriters are eagerly exploring AI to push creative boundaries and captivate audiences with something groundbreaking.

“The space race was about being first, but it was also about inspiring the world that we should keep competing and keep investing [in the technology]. Bigger than being first, which is fleeting, is inspiring the world,” Bryn Mooser, a two-time Academy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker, shared with The Post.

Though fully AI-produced films have emerged, they usually come with modest budgets and primarily find their audience online, crafted by highly creative individuals. As of now, these AI films are still a rarity in mainstream theaters.

However, household names are testing the waters and teasing their involvement with AI, which sources say probably goes much further than they are letting on.

In 2025, legendary director Martin Scorsese aligned with the German AI company Black Forest Labs to use its technology, announcing it would be part of pre-production and creating storyboards.

“I’m interested in the intersection of technology and storytelling, and seeing how that can push the bounds of creativity to create deeper and richer experiences for audiences,” he somewhat cryptically told the New York Times.

Traditionalists were outraged that the man who previously labored over hand-drawn boards for movies like “Raging Bull,” painstakingly sketching boxing fight scenes so their ragged lines conveyed the energy he wanted from star Robert De Niro, would eschew his natural talents to use technology.

But as Scorsese and many others like him know, any new tool presents an opportunity, and if you’re not involved, you’ll be left behind.

“They are scared to admit it publicly, but it is a tool that gives an advantage. If you don’t use it, you’ll be at a disadvantage to those who are using AI,” David Defendi, a screenwriter and founder of an AI software company, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Seeing the opportunity, Oscar-winner Ben Affleck invested in AI startup InterPositive. They have said their technology can be used to adjust the lighting in scenes, remove stunt ropes, or correct continuity errors — the kind of things that are handy on real sets, shooting real actors.

Netflix bought the company in a deal worth up to $600 million, which insiders say is a lot of money for apparent “rope-removing” tech.

Keen not to tip their hands, the main players in Hollywood are playing their cards close to their vest. “The thing with AI right now in Hollywood: Everyone’s lying just a little bit… Studios are lying about how much they’re using it,” media mogul Janice Min recently told Business Insider.

They’re also tiptoeing around angry movie industry unions, who are all daring someone to step over the line and admit to using AI in a role that took work away from any creative, vowing all hell will break loose when they do.

However, once that genie is out of the bottle, it’s open season.

Mooser explained that forward-thinking production companies are “using [AI] technology and putting in the filmmakers to make it happen. And when it does, alarm bells will be sent through all the studios. It’s going to be a real wake-up call.”

One thing unions have been particularly vocal about: no AI-generated characters, such as the controversial Tilly Norwood, a beautiful young lab-created female star, who had been the subject of anger and ridicule, but still landed a role in comedy-drama “Misaligned.”

Everything else, it seems, can be gotten away with. The closest thing to an AI blockbuster up for grabs so far is “Killing Satoshi,” starring Ben’s brother, Casey Affleck, and comic Pete Davidson.

The upcoming Bitcoin-themed movie is being directed by Doug Liman — who worked with Tom Cruise in the drug-smuggling action-comedy  “American Made,” and will include over 200 locations that, according to The Wrap, extend from Antarctica to Antigua and will all be created with AI.

Filming is being done on a “grey box” stage, where Casey and Davidson will act and have worlds created around them. Some of the editing will also help smooth things over.

If that’s not enough to upset the traditionalists and unions, the budget surely will. Liman claimed the movie’s budget dropped from $300 million to $70 million thanks to the use of AI, slashing travel costs and reducing shooting time.

Another big indie director, Darren Aronofsky, Oscar-nominated for directing “Black Swan,” has thrown himself headlong into AI-created work, executive producing a collection of American Revolution shorts called “On This Day… 1776.” They were met with mixed reviews, but they were certainly a landmark in AI creation.

From the actors’ side, many have copyrighted their images to prevent misuse online, such as “Interstellar” and “Magic Mike” star Matthew McConaughey, who filed eight trademark applications to stop his likeness from appearing online.

One of the hottest trends among actors is to work with a lab to scan their digital image, so it can be used in AI productions without them lifting a finger.

Such tech is being used to bring Val Kilmer, who died in 2025, back to life. His last announced movie, “Deep as the Grave,” is now being finished with archival footage and AI creations of him.

British actor Michael Caine retired years ago, but he has licensed his voice to the company ElevenLabs for use in various commercial situations, including narration of “The Odyssey” audio book. It is Sir Michael’s voice, but done through AI, so he did not need to read the entire book out loud. McConaughey — an investor in the company — is using the same tech to translate his voice into Spanish. It’s reasonable to think his image and likeness may end up being an ElevenLabs project in the future.

Meanwhile, one of Scorsese’s old pals, screenwriter-turned-director Paul Schrader — who scripted “Taxi Driver” and “Raging Bull”— is on board with the new AI dawn.

He’s had a few hiccups, including an abandoned remake of a John Wayne movie and the Screen Actors Guild forbidding him from using computer-generated characters in his in-production film noir, but he anticipates an upcoming AI film.

“By the time I get out, there will be 10 or 20 AI films ahead of me. And one of those is going to make a lot of money,” he predicts.

And with the way online virality works now, perhaps that movie won’t even come from Hollywood at all.

“Imagine somebody who [makes a movie using AI], and it gets hundreds of millions of views on YouTube, and it gets talked about. It’s so popular people are wearing costumes of the characters in it for Halloween. That’s coming,” says Mooser, whose production company Asteria has five AI-enabled films in the works. “It’s a paradigm shift. If you suddenly have the technology to do things that are indistinguishable from a Marvel movie, then you’re only limited by your passion – although, of course, you still need to tell a good story.”

And in that respect, the best storytellers will have many advantages. Schrader half-joked that for an 83-year-old director like Scorsese, AI may serve an unexpected purpose: “He’s getting on in age. Maybe that’s how he makes a last film. He doesn’t have to leave the house!”

The ongoing custody dispute between NBA player Miles Bridges and Mychelle Johnson, the mother of his four children, has seen a new development, with Bridges alleging she assaulted him by throwing water on him.

According to court documents accessed by The Daily Mail, Bridges asserts that Johnson doused him with water in the presence of their children during a scheduled custody exchange on June 22. He claims she threatened to repeat her actions if their disagreement continued.

The court documents reveal that Bridges recorded the incident by communicating with Johnson via a co-parenting app, questioning her actions with, ‘So it’s funny to throw water on me in front of my kids?’

In the documents, Johnson allegedly responded, stating: ‘You were cussing in front of them scaring them SO i played it off SO they would laugh they did.’

Furthermore, Bridges has accused Johnson of violating the custody agreement by refusing him his scheduled visitation and relocating their children from North Carolina to Florida.

‘The Mother has repeatedly placed the children in the middle of the parties’ dispute, used the children as leverage against the Father, exposed the children to an act of physical violence committed against the Father, and then attempted to cause the children to laugh at or minimize that conduct,’ Bridges’ attorneys claim.

‘Exposing young children to an assault upon their Father and then trivializing that assault is harmful to their emotional health, safety, and welfare.’

Bridges is seeking primary physical custody of their children as well as joint legal custody which includes his ex-partner being supervised by a qualified third-party supervisor during her scheduled parenting time.

The Daily Mail has contacted Mychelle Johnson, who is facing misdemeanor charges of assault and battery over the alleged water incident, and her attorneys at Conley Law Office for comment.

Bridges was granted a temporary restraining order against Johnson back in May after accusing her of ‘cyberstalking’ him and turning up at one of his basketball games to damage his car. Johnson denied the claims.

She was forbidden from coming with 500 feet of Bridges and ordered to stay at least 500 feet from his current girlfriend, Shara, and the three children he shares with her, as well as his home and workplace.

Johnson has also been accused in previous court filings of calling his attorneys under an assumed name to make false pregnancy claims against him, and lying to their children by claiming he had no interest in seeing them.

Bridges’ previous custody request was denied by the Mecklenburg County judge on April 10 because it ‘failed to articulate how the children were at substantial risk,’ according to an order reviewed by The Daily Mail.

Bridges pleaded no contest in 2022 to a felony domestic violence charge for injuring Johnson in front of their children in June of 2022. Johnson shared photos of her injuries allegedly sustained in the attack days later, although she didn’t mention him by name and subsequently deleted the social media post.

He avoided jail time as part of his plea agreement but was sentenced to three years of probation.

In October of 2023, a criminal summons was issued for Bridges, accusing him of violating a protection order stemming from the 2022 domestic violence case.

A former Michigan State standout, Bridges was a first-round pick of the Los Angeles Clippers in 2018 but was immediately dealt to Charlotte in exchange for future MVP, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Over seven NBA seasons, he has averaged 15.9 points and 6.1 rebounds a game.

Bridges has $76million in career earnings and is due to make $22.8m for the Hornets next season.

A recent decision by New York City authorities to relocate 110 single homeless men to a shelter in Brooklyn without performing criminal background checks has sparked significant concern among local residents. The community fears that this move could lead to increased crime in their peaceful neighborhood.

The former Gold Star Inn, located in Sheepshead Bay, has served as a shelter for families for about a year. However, next week it is scheduled to transition to accommodating single adult men. This change follows the decision by the city’s Department of Homeless Services to move the 55 families currently residing there elsewhere, according to a report from the New York Post.

Residents in the vicinity, who have already noticed a rise in crime since the shelter’s original opening, expressed their concerns to the Post. Many worry that the switch to housing single men will further aggravate the situation.

“People are breaking into cars, vandalizing the park, and engaging in inappropriate behavior there,” said Fahad, a 30-year-old plumber from the nearby Brighton Beach area. “It used to be extremely quiet.”

According to NYPD data, shooting incidents in the 61st Precinct, which includes Sheepshead Bay, have risen to 5 so far this year, a 400% increase compared to the same period in 2025. Reports of rape have doubled from eight to 16, while retail theft has risen 10%.

Overall crime in the area dropped about 7% so far this year compared to the same period in 2025, according to the NYPD data.

Residents have also expressed concern that city officials will not conduct criminal background checks on incoming shelter residents.

“The Department of Homeless Services confirmed that no criminal background vetting will take place, leaving room for potential sex offenders and convicted felons to come in contact with our children,” Republican City Councilwoman Inna Vernikov wrote in a letter to the city’s Department of Social Services (DSS) last week.

Vernikov argued the conversion would be “devastating” for the surrounding community, citing concerns about loitering, drug activity and crime near the shelter, which sits across the street from Lew Fidler Park, a popular neighborhood playground.

Ginny, a resident who declined to give her last name, told the Post that “not checking the background is not very diligent of the city.”

“How can [they] say they are protecting children when they allow that? There are also elderly people who can be targets,” she said.

Another neighbor, Olga Adynets, said someone recently released from prison is already staying at the shelter.

“I don’t want it to get worse. I’m worried,” she said.

The shelter is operated by BHRAGS, a nonprofit that has faced federal scrutiny after its former executive director Roberto Samedy and former board chairman Jean Ronald Tirelus were indicted earlier this year on charges including wire fraud, embezzlement and accepting illicit payments.

Despite the investigation, Mayor Zohran Mamdani awarded the organization nearly $200 million in new city contracts in June, according to the Post.

City officials told the outlet the shelter conversion reflects changing demand, with fewer families entering the shelter system and more single adult men requiring housing. Officials also said BHRAGS is under new leadership after the city reduced the nonprofit’s shelter portfolio.

“The agency continues to address the prevalent stigma against single adult men experiencing homelessness,” a DSS spokesperson told The Post. “The agency also implements good neighbor policies while maintaining open lines of communication with the community to address any concerns as they arise.”

News Media has reached out to the mayor’s office and DSS for comment.

At almost 68, Madonna is on the verge of overtaking Gen-Z sensations Olivia Rodrigo and Ella Langley to claim the top spot on the Billboard album charts this coming week.

She has achieved this milestone with her latest album, “Confessions on a Dance Floor Part II,” which features some of her most personal lyrics to date. The songs are said to touch on her late brother, stepmother, and her former husband Sean Penn, who Madonna claims felt “threatened by” her.

A close friend of Madonna revealed to Page Six that, although one track about Sean Penn may come as a surprise, he remains “the love of her life.”

Additionally, the album includes a duet co-written and performed with her 29-year-old daughter, Lola (born Lourdes) Leon. Madonna recently mentioned that Lola suggested they create a song together “as a way to heal our relationship.”

A source close to Madonna confided to Page Six, “There were times when Madonna and Lola weren’t on speaking terms. Lola often felt that her mother was overly strict during her upbringing, perhaps more than necessary.”

Madonna, meanwhile, “also felt guilty about bringing Lola up in a world of unimaginable fame and about how that had an impact on her life.

In the song, Madonna calls her daughter “little star” — the same affectionate name she called her by on her “Ray of Light” album in 1998, when Lola was two years old.

“You didn’t ask for all the flashing lights/ I didn’t think of how it could disturb/ Or how it hurt/ I wish I knew/ The pain I’ve caused,” she sings.

“She understands how a child of someone so famous would struggle with their own identity, and she has felt guilty about that,” the friend said. “The distance came partly because Lola didn’t want to be seen as a nepo baby.”

Lola was born to Madonna and Carlos Leon, a fitness trainer the singer dated from 1994 to 1997 after meeting while she was jogging and he was biking in Central Park. Stories have circulated for years about how strict the otherwise libertine singer is with her six children (including sons Rocco Ritchie, 25, and David Banda, 20, whom she adopted with ex-husband and film director Guy Ritchie; and adopted daughters Mercy James, 20, and Stella and Estere, both 13).

She’s been said to keep them on a macrobiotic diet — no sweets, dairy, or preservatives — and TV is banned. Page Six previously reported that Lola got an iPhone only after turning 15 and that if any of their clothing was left on the floor, the items would be taken away.

“I think my mom saw all these other kids of famous people, and she was like, ‘My kids are not going to be like this … ‘ ” Lola told Interview magazine. “My mom is such a control freak, and she has controlled me my whole life. I needed to be completely independent from her as soon as I graduated high school.”

That meant moving to Bushwick, Brooklyn, after growing up between London and Manhattan — where she graduated from LaGuardia High School and dated a pre-fame Timothée Chalamet — and trying to start her own music career. She was more recently involved with Jonathan Puglia, a photographer and skateboarder, but is said to be single now.

As Lolahol, she released a handful of dance-pop singles in 2022 and 2023, but nothing more recently.

“Madonna always felt that Lola didn’t want to be associated with her mother when it came to music, so she was really touched when Lola suggested it,” the friend said. “Madonna and Lola have sometimes struggled to just be, as there is quite a lot of pain there, but they are doing really well thanks to creating this song together.”

Page Six is told that the singer, who has been performing for six decades now, was in a nostalgic mood when she wrote the album. While Madonna would like to be seen as ageless, she also had a life-or-death scare in 2023 with a bacterial infection that led to sepsis and left her in a coma for four days.

For the last few years, she had been working on a script about her life, with actress Julia Garner set to play the star after a grueling audition process. But the production was scrapped amid a reported budget disagreement with Universal Pictures.

Madonna then attempted to turn her life story into a series, working on a script for Netflix. When that stalled over struggles to find the right showrunner, she decided to use her memories for a new creative project.

The singer had worked with producer Stuart Price on the 2005 album “Confessions on a Dance Floor,” a fan favorite that included her hit song “Hung Up.” In 2024, she visited Price’s home in London to see whether the old magic was there. At the time, her brother Christopher Ciccone was dying of pancreatic cancer and her stepmother, Joan Clare, had just passed away.

Madonna recently told Interview that “a lot of the songs here are confessional. I feel like my brain is tuned into memory and how it’s all connected and where it has brought me. The past is such an important part of my life — not to dwell in, but to learn from and share with other people.”

She sings on “Fragile”: “When I’m alone/ I see you standing there/ I see inside your soul/And I feel whole.” It is believed to be about Christopher, who had once been her closest ally and confidant, even working with her as a choreographer and dancer. But the two had fallen out — with Christopher saying his sister held grudges — in part over his 2008 book, in which he called Penn “intense,” Carlos Leon “thick” and Guy Ritchie “a poser.”

“I didn’t speak to him for years, years and years,” Madonna told podcaster Jay Shetty in 2025. “It was him being ill and reaching out to me and saying, ‘I need your help,’ and me having that moment like, ‘Am I going to help my enemy?’ That’s how it felt.”

Likewise, she had a rocky relationship with Joan, the woman who married Madonna’s widowed father, Tony Ciccone, when the singer was just eight years old. “I didn’t accept my stepmother when I was growing up,” she once told Larry King.

Joan died after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. In the song “Betrayal,” Madonna sings: “When the book of love is written, I am the writer/ And by the last page, you will not be mentioned … You’ll never take my mother’s place.”

And then there is Penn. The two had a turbulent marriage from 1985 to 1989, including the actor’s several scuffles with paparazzi and long-denied rumors that he had tied up her and held her hostage — leading to a SWAT team storming his house, according to Penn.

She drops clues that the song “Bizarre” is about him — “Movie star, deep blue eyes/ In Hollywood, we’re a perfect prize/ He drove way too fast/ Shelby Cobra, wasn’t meant to last” alludes to a sports car she was reportedly gifted Penn when they wed.

“She sees Sean as the love of her life, and she is happy to put that out there,” the friend said.

For the past two years, she has been involved with soccer player and coach Akeem Morris, 30, but the friend added that neither is thinking about marriage.

“She knows Akeem might want to have kids one day, and she’s ruled out adopting more, so she knows there may be a time limit,” the friend said.

These days, she is primarily based in London — where she once lived with ex-husband Guy Ritchie — and has said she will be there for a few more years at least. It means she gets to see more of Rocco, her son with Ritchie, and they, too, are getting on better than ever.

In 2015, when Rocco was 15 years old, he refused to leave his father’s home in London to spend the holidays in New York City with his mother, leading to a courtroom custody battle. Last fall, Madonna revealed on Shetty’s “On Purpose” podcast that, during that time, “I actually contemplated suicide. That probably sounds really weird coming from me because I’m not emo … but I was like, ‘I can’t take this pain anymore.’”

“Like Lola, Rocco is independent,’ says Madonna’s friend of the young artist, who paints under the name Rhed. “He also used to rail at how tough Madonna was on him when he was growing up but she was trying to do her best for her children — she didn’t want them to go down the Hollywood route of doing nothing and falling into drugs. And I think she did a good job.

‘Rocco now understands what she was trying to do.”

Up next, Madonna is reportedly making plans for a concert tour — although friends and family, concerned about how hard she worked herself last time, which helped lead to her illness, have admitted they hope she doesn’t.

Like many others who are officially what Social Security considers “full retirement age,” the singer is suffering from a bad knee. The cartilage in her left leg has gone, and it has meant that she has to curb her dancing: instead, she keeps fit on a Peloton while also biking incognito in London’s parks.

“Mentally, she is totally on the ball, but she just wishes that her body would keep up,” said her friend. “But she has absolutely loved the response to the album. She sees what she’s done as the story of a survivor, and it’s incredible how long she has survived at the top of the music business. The very top.

City authorities have announced a criminal investigation concerning the stability issues with a New York City skyscraper.

Workers evacuated a 37-story tower in Midtown Manhattan on Tuesday morning after construction teams found that two interior columns had started to give way.

Officials reported that floors 21 to 26 near Grand Central Terminal had collapsed under stress.

The skyscraper, currently being converted from offices to residential units, has multiple reported cases of cracking and sagging floors throughout.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office, alongside the New York City Department of Investigation, is looking into the incident’s causes, as verified by a statement to The Daily Mail.

The investigation was still in the early stages on Friday as workers continue to work on stabilizing the building, the outlet reported. 

The probe is predicted to be complex as the construction project was supposed to be the largest residential conversion in the US, involving dozens of subcontractors, companies, and developers. 

Because there are so many factors and parties involved, the investigation itself can take months to years, and there is a possibility it might be closed without any charges being brought, The New York Times reported. 

There is no indication that the building’s developers, MetroLoft and David Werner Real Estate, and its many contractors and subcontractors, are targets of the preliminary investigation, the report stated. 

After the building buckled, Nathan Berman, the managing principal and founder of MetroLoft told The Times that it was ‘nothing more than a typical construction mishap.’

Berman appeared to shrug off the incident further, stating that issues happen ‘unfortunately far too often on construction sites: falling cranes, people – God forbid – falling off buildings, windows falling out.’ 

But this isn’t the first time MetroLoft has been in the hot seat, as the prominent real estate management and development firm is currently battling a lawsuit linked to another property mishap.  

The company is facing a more than $350 million lawsuit over a celebrity-filled apartment building in Tribeca, according to city records obtained by the New York Post. 

The building on Greenwich Street has housed A-listers like Meg Ryan, Harry Styles, and Rebel Wilson over the last 10 years. 

The suit alleges a number of structural issues in the building. 

It initially sought $250 million in compensation and insurance claims, but that price has skyrocketed to $376 million as litigation continues, the report stated. 

The legal complaints started to pile up in 2022, just a few years after MetroLoft took over the former bookbinding factory and marketed it as a luxurious enclave for celebrities. 

But soon after big names moved in, they started to spot construction and engineering issues, the Post reported. 

MetroLoft has made several attempts to dismiss the mounting case, but Supreme Court judges have ruled against them. 

While Berman believes the buckling at the Midtown building is common in the industry, union and city workers have pointed to glaring issues, including the bent columns that were only caught when the property nearly collapsed. 

The evacuation of the building itself caused mayhem, with surrounding blocks shutting down, offices clearing out, and neighboring apartments and hotels taking cover.  

After the structural scare on Tuesday, experts warned that the building, which was formerly the headquarters for pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, would require some demolition. 

But even attempting that could trigger a collapse and create a scene that would likely traumatize many New Yorkers who witnessed the fall of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. 

‘The images we have seen show a buckled column, you can see cracking, you can see floors that are sagging, those generally are damage that is not reversible,’ structural engineer Emily Guglielmo previously told the New York Post.

‘It’s not like we can just push a cracked floor up and it can maintain its capacity, so there will absolutely be removal and replacement of some of these elements.’

She suggested crews will need to add ‘temporary bracing and shoring’ to quickly stabilize the building, but warned that it could be ‘too risky’ to do so.

Her analysis was echoed by Ronald Hamburger, a structural engineer who investigated the World Trade Center catastrophe, who warned that the building is in ‘significant danger’ of suffering a local collapse. 

Although only some of the columns buckled, Hamburger explained that the beams and columns that remain intact are now ‘highly stressed.’

He said the failed columns are now only able to support one-third of the load they were meant to bear, which in turn puts more pressure on the other supports.

The expert predicts workers will need to install brackets on the columns on the 20th floor to re-level the building and ease the load. 

They will then need to replace the columns that failed, and all of this needs to be done ‘rapidly’ to prevent more damage, Hamburger added. 

The Daily Mail contacted MetroLoft and the New York City Department of Investigation for comment.